“Save the Waldorf”? A letter to Change.org: By Gena Thompson

This letter was sent to change.org, an online website that hosts petitions and posted a petition to “Save the Waldorf.”

Hi Change.org,

I think some research might have been in order before posting a petition to Save the Waldorf.

Inside view of The Waldorf

The petition starter, “Tim”, calls the Waldorf a “cultural hub” and states that its loss will impact the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. This is a co-optation of the anti-gentrification, anti-racist movements that have been in the neighbourhood for 50 years.

“Tim” also refers to the hotel’s location in the “middle of nowhere” (quotes his); what he means by that is that it is located amidst several Native housing projects. The clientele does not originate there.

The Downtown Eastside is a neighbourhood largely made up of poor, working class and First Nations people. Widespread drug use and violence against women are some of its more famous attributes. Some invisible attributes include close-knit, supportive community ties, passionate activism and an old-fashioned small town intimacy among low-income community members.

A quick Google search of “Downtown Eastside” a few weeks ago would have turned up stories of Native people protesting the Missing Women inquiry, which whitewashed the 15-year failure of the police to investigate hundreds of murders and disappearances of Native women. It would also turn up mention of the first legal safe drug injection facility in North America, which has saved the lives of hundreds of addicted people, while being fought every step of the way by government and business.

The Waldorf, on the other hand, is a playground for white hipsters. It was one of the first “cultural hubs” to open the door to development of myriad hip new restaurants and clubs that have swept through the hood in the past two years, reassuring white hipsters that the DTES is now safe for them to drop in, have a $30 meal, a $12 cocktail and a $3 doughnut, while outside, homeless people freeze on the sidewalk. Sometimes they take pictures.

It’s unfortunate that Change.org has unwittingly become a tool of this gentrification which endangers the most vulnerable residents of Vancouver in favour of entertainment of the most privileged.

I hope you will look into this and verify if “Save the Waldorf” is the kind of movement Change.org wants its name linked to.

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Community Spotlight: Jean Swanson

For our issue on the BC Liberal legacy, Volcano editors turned to our Community Spotlight on a legacy of our own to highlight her over 40 years of anti-poverty work. Jean Swanson is an editor with The Volcano alongside her work with the Carnegie Community Action Project. She previously worked with the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA) and is the author of a book titled Poorbashing: The Politics of Exclusion.

You’ve been active in anti-poverty work for a long time. What has been the biggest realization that you have had with regards to poverty in this province? Has your understanding or approach to government changed over time and through experience?

My approach to government has definitely changed. Back in 1979, I actually ran as an NDP MLA candidate because I thought being involved in electoral politics was a way of implementing the things you’ve been fighting for in the community. I ran with COPE for city council too, along with my co-workers Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies, who were elected. In those days it seemed possible to get city council to do some good things for the Downtown Eastside if we worked hard at it: fund the Carnegie Centre, pass a Standards of Maintenance bylaw, put sprinklers in the hotels.

In the early 90s, after the NDP cut welfare and brought in a whole poorbashing framework to justify it, I couldn’t bring myself to vote at all, let alone run for office.

The Volcano is published on traditional, ancestral, and unceded Coast Salish Territories.

Alliance Against Displacement: The Volcano is affiliated with the Alliance Against Displacement, a pan-regional anti-displacement network of local communities, organizations, and activists fighting displacement on the ground.